A Kid’s View of Politics

On a light-hearted note – when about to leave a local YMCA recently, I overhead a couple of ten-year old boys talking. They went from topics of swimming, football, school and others in the flash of an eye. Then out of nowhere one of them said, “It’s not fair that only adults get to vote. If kids got to vote, McKeen would be President.” I did not know whether to laugh or cry, but it sent a number of messages through my head.

My first thought was, where did that come from? 3 years out and this kid still (almost) remembers the other candidate. Wonder how many older kids, even adults might remember that.

That led to a couple of other musings. 1) Maybe his parents were for the other candidate and might still be noisily fussing about their loss. 2) If the RNC thought that the 10 year old vote would have elected McCain, they would probably be seeking legislation to lower the voting age. (In all fairness so would the Dems in a similar situation.) 3) Was this kid the 21st century version of Alex Keaton (google old TV show, Family Ties).

I was disappointed that the kid never said why McKeen would be President, because I was so anxious to hear his thoughts. But alas, a second later, the conversation was back to swimming.

My conclusions are these. I am not quite ready yet to let kids vote. And I will continue to be amazed at what they have in their heads. Although I have passed on most of the current GOP debates, it might be a hoot to hear what kids would say about the issues. My guess is Afghanistan and Medicare would get a lot less attention than too much homework and too few holiday breaks. And if those comments applied to work as well as school, they would probably get a standing ovation from a lot of working stiffs like us.